


The Art Of Love

by OllieCatSuperNova



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Slow Burn, artist! Castiel, but then it got more serious, oh well, there may be smut, this started as a joke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 11:17:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10512687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OllieCatSuperNova/pseuds/OllieCatSuperNova
Summary: Castiel is the awkward kid in high school, but he has a knack for the arts. One day he finally finds a use for his abilities when the attractive bad-boy Dean moves into town.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!!

Castiel hurried to class, metal case full of graphite pencils in hand, heavy papered sketchbook under his arm. He arrived and briskly stepped over to his seat, which happened to be next to his older brother Gabriel. “Hey Cassie, bell’s about to ring,” Gabriel smirked, poking his brother in the ribs. “You’re gonna turn into an underachiever, bro!”

Cas clicked open the snaps on his case of art supplies, flipped open his sketchbook to a new page and quietly but sternly replied, “Don’t call me Cassie.” He glanced at the table in front of Gabriel, a confused look spreading across his face. “Why don’t you have anything with you?”

His brother slumped back in his seat, lacing his fingers and cradling the back of his head with them before letting out a sigh. “I made a slingshot out of my pencils and a couple rubber bands and shot Alastair with my eraser. The teacher took it away from me.” Cas raised his eyebrows, sighing. He wasn’t surprised in the least. He didn’t even need to ask what happened to the sketchbook either, Gabriel had probably used up all of the paper making aeroplanes and throwing them at the other students.

“Remind me again why you’re even in this class,” Castiel scoffed, beginning to absently sketch his brother’s profile.

“I needed another art credit.” 

Castiel smirked, enjoying his brother’s predicament. “Sounds about right.” It was completely like Gabriel to put off the things he didn’t like as much. He needed two art credits to graduate, so he ended up taking Advanced Drawing and Varsity Choir. 

“Nice job, dude.” Castiel jumped at the sudden voice behind him and spun around to find himself face to face with a complete stranger. He felt his mouth go dry and his throat tighten. He tried to utter a simple thank you, but he couldn’t even swallow at the moment. The stranger, a boy about his age, maybe a year older, smirked at Castiel’s helplessness. He clapped a hand to Cas’ shoulder, which made his heart flutter, and said, “Alright, man. No problem, just thought you should be aware of how great of an artist you are.” 

“Yeah,” he finally managed to say, his voice cracking with only a single syllable word. He watched the boy flash another smile and continue on his way. He felt Gabriel elbow him in the ribs, and turned dumbly toward his older brother. “What?” he muttered, still in a daze.

Gabriel grinned and huffed a small laugh, shaking his head with clear amusement. “Bro, you’ve obviously got the hots for the new kid.”

Cas sighed and gazed down at the picture he’d been sketching of his brother. He flipped through his sketchbook, catching glimpses of all of the other sketches he’d done. A man at a coffee shop, a woman sitting on a park bench, a child playing on a swing. To him it was just doodling, no matter how others had insisted that they were way too good to be doodles, but somehow, this stranger’s words made him begin to see just how good he was.

***

Throughout the rest of the day, Cas found himself scribbling in his sketchbook, drawing the new kid over and over. The thing was, he never started to do it intentionally. He’d be in History class taking notes, and suddenly, he’d look down and find that he’d been sketching the boy from art class. He didn’t even know his name, but he couldn’t stop sketching him. He sighed and tried to focus on the class, eventually giving up with note taking, and closed his notebook, pencil in the spiralling metal binding. After school he met up with Gabriel to tell him to wait for him. He then systematically went to each of his classes and asked his teachers for permission to use his laptop for notes because he had trouble staying focussed with pencil and paper. It wasn’t a problem, and every one of his teachers agreed to at least try it out and see if it worked. Probably the main reason for how readily they all agreed was that Castiel was a grade A student.

“What took you so long?” Gabriel was waiting just outside the school doors, lollipop in hand.

Cas shook his head, “Nothing, I just needed some help with an assignment or two.” He headed quickly for the car without pausing, making Gabriel jog to catch up.

“You never need help! Come on, tell me the truth,” his brother goaded, grabbing his shoulder to try to stop him. Only Castiel didn’t expect it, so he was jerked slightly back, and then he felt his hands slip, the sketchbook and notebooks falling open on the ground. He stopped dead, staring at the open pages, full of sketches of the boy from art class. Gabriel was silent for a moment before breaking out in loud laughter. Cas glared back at at him, face bright red. Gabriel was leaning heavily against one of the cars in the lot, crippled by laughter, arm hugging his stomach. “I-I can’t…!” Gabriel gasped between giggles, “You- You saw him once!” 

Castiel glanced around and quickly gathered up his books, glad that no one was around to see. He’d seen the boy more than once, if you counted all of the hurried glances in the hallways between classes, that is. He shifted his bag on his shoulder and dragged his brother to the car, trying to stop himself from having an anxiety attack. “I hate you,” he said when they were well on their way, gaze fixed to the glass of the window, not bothering to look passed it to the trees and houses on the other side, going by in a blur. 

Gabriel glanced at him, then chuckled, looking back to the road in front of them. “Come on, bro. You have to admit, it is pretty funny.” Cas didn’t look at him and sighed. Gabe let his grin fall, trying to think of something to lighten the mood. “So,” he drew out the word, not wanting to scare Castiel into that shell of his, “What did he say when you showed him?”

Cas was silent, hoping to get out of answering, but when the silence persisted for almost three minutes, he knew he would have to answer eventually. “Didn’t show him,” he muttered. 

Gabriel pulled into their driveway, but he kept the doors locked. “What?” 

Cas casually tried the handle anyway, not surprised when it didn’t open. He sighed and said a little louder, “I didn’t show him.” Gabe stared at him, mouth open in astonishment. “I don’t even know his name, Gabriel! He’d think I was crazy if he knew I was doing this!”

“Bro,” Gabriel began slowly, “I gotta tell him.”

“No!” Cas interrupted. “No, just, you can’t.” Gabriel looked like he was about to argue so Cas added, “Please.” He was desperate. The boy from art class couldn’t know, and if he found out… Cas didn’t know what he’d do. Maybe he could get away with running. Yeah, move to a new town, change his name and start a new life.

“Fine,” his older brother finally sighed, “I promise I won’t let anyone find out.” He reached over and shut off the car, unlocking the doors. 

“Thanks,” Cas breathed. They both climbed out and headed up to the house.

Gabriel led the way to the door, and when he opened it, his little black and white terrier jumped up at him. “Bingo! I’m back home buddy!” he exclaimed excitedly, picking up the small dog. Cas rolled his eyes, his brother always got to do what he wanted. Dad didn’t even notice Bingo, and if he did, he didn’t care. “You hungry? I’m hungry,” Gabriel murmured to his dog, heading to the kitchen. 

“Come up to my room later, I’ll help you with homework,” Castiel called after him before climbing up the stairs. He didn’t bother waiting for an answer, he just wanted to get to his room before any of his brothers or uncles saw him. It wasn’t that he hated his family or anything, it was just that his brothers, Michael and Lucifer were always fighting and trying to involve other people to prove their point. His uncles, Zacharia and Uriel were always trying to get him to get him to go to what they called ‘religious meetings’ which consisted of them figuring out new ways the cheat the system. Then there was Dad. He wasn’t bad, per se, in fact he was really nice and interested in their school days, but that was Cas’ problem. He didn’t really want to share his day with anyone, especially not today. 

He managed to get all the way to his door, and was almost inside when he was stopped by his dad’s voice, “Hey Cas! How was your day?”

Castiel sighed, turning around. He plastered a fake yet convincing smile on his face when he answered, “Good. I mean, I was a little distracted, but everything went well.”

“Oh, son,” His dad sighed, looking concerned. “Come on, we’ll sit outside and talk about it.”

No. No, crap, he shouldn’t have said that he was distracted. He should have just said that he had had a great day and slipped into his room. Crap, now he was trapped into some ‘father-son bonding’ thing again. He opened his mouth to argue, but before he could say anything, Michael and Lucifer stormed out of the game room, in the middle of yet another heated argument. “Damn it, Michael, you always do this! You always have to insist that I’m wrong!”

“Excuse me, but last time I checked, you were set on telling me that I was the wrong one.”

“Shut the fuck up, that’s not what I mean, and you know it!”

“You know what, Luci? You’re the one that breaks all of the rules! You’re the one that does drugs! The only one in the entire house that drinks is you, and you’re seventeen! Yet you’re still Dad’s favorite. Why? I have no clue!” Michael stormed off down the stairs.

Lucifer didn’t even hesitate before diving after him, “Well maybe it’s because he knows how shitty you are inside! Daddy’s little angel doesn’t have the balls to test his boundaries a little!”

Cas watched them passively. He looked back up at his dad, who also had his head turned toward the boys, who had already disappeared down the stairs. There was the sound of a door slamming once somewhere below them, then once more. His dad sighed again, “It’ll have to wait a bit, Cas. I better go sort them out.”

Castiel nodded, hiding his relief as his dad trotted down the steps. He glanced around before quickly slipping into his room, shutting the door behind himself. He let out a relieved breath, alone at last. He spread out his notebooks and flipped through them, taking in every one of the sketches of the boy from art class. For some reason he liked these more than any of the others he’d done. His brow furrowed when he turned the page, noticing the deeper emotions captured in each sketch. He pulled out his sketchbook and flipped to the picture of Gabriel’s profile he’d drawn that day, then set it right next to a side view of the boy from art class. They were both very well done, but Gabriel’s showed none of his mischievous side, no joy or hidden doubt that Cas knew he possessed, while the stranger’s gave the impression of a play-it-cool rebel with deep laying guilt and low self-worth. He flipped through them again, and it showed in nearly every one.

He took out his phone and sent Gabriel a text, “Let’s do homework in your room tonight, okay?” He dropped his phone to his bed and set to hanging up all of the sketches of the boy from art class on the wall above his drawing desk. He was hanging up the last one when his phone buzzed. He went over to his bed and picked it up, seeing a text from Gabriel.

“got a lil slap hapy in ther? ;))” Cas rolled his eyes, not bothering to answer the idiotic goading question.

“Text me whenever you want to start your homework, Gabriel.” He was always very precise when he texted, which, according to his brother, was part of why he was so lame. Other things on ‘Gabriel’s list of what makes Cas lame’ included the following: Being a straight-A student, Not showing off his art skills, Not going to parties, Locking himself in his room most of the time, and quote, ‘refusing to have fun’ unquote. There was more, much more. In fact Gabriel’s list went on and on, and it could take hours to name everything. Castiel didn’t care much that Gabriel thought he was lame, and it didn’t really matter to him that he wasn’t popular in school, but starting that day he wanted to gain just one more friend. 

He sat at his desk and pulled out a blank piece of paper and a stick of charcoal. He drew out well placed lines with care, not wanting to mess up. His strokes were broad, yes, and large, so to the casual viewer it may seem like nothing more than lines, but his mind showed a bigger picture, which he projected onto the paper with determined precision. He threw glances up at the wall above him every so often, studying the sketches that hung there. Within a few minutes (hours, seconds?) he was satisfied with his work and put it aside, taking out another large piece of paper. He repeated the process, this time drawing out a different set of lines, still not looking like much to someone who didn’t know his plans. 

As soon as he sat back in his chair, arching his back and reaching his arms up in a long stretch, his phone chimed. He reached over to where it was perched on his bed, not bothering to get up, and glanced at the display before unlocking it and reading the text. “hey bro get to my room stat” Cas smirked, secretly enjoying his brother’s weird sense of humour. Before he could respond to the text, however, his phone chimed again, signaling another text from Gabriel. “bring yer homwork to lol” it read.

Castiel rolled his eyes, hitting reply and typing quickly, “Okay, okay, calm down. I’m on my way.” He got up and grabbed his bag, glancing at the newly finished artwork piled loosely in the corner of his art desk as he left his room. He cautiously crossed the hallway, listening for the smallest noise that would indicate the arrival of his brothers or father. He quickly slipped into Gabriel’s room, and when he closed the door and turned to face the room, he found it piled with clothes, empty pizza boxes, and most noticeably, more candy wrappers than he could count. He arched his eyebrows in surprize, seeming to remember his brother’s room being cleaner last time he was in there. 

Gabriel sat up on his bed, opening his arms in a wide, welcoming gesture, exclaiming, “Welcome to the room of the Trickster, bro!” a wide, goofy grin on his face. Bingo came trotting up to Cas, tail wagging happily. Castiel always thought it was strange the way Bingo and Gabriel seemed to have the same mind, the dog understanding everything Gabriel said, and vice verse. 

Cas looked incredulously at his brother, “Do you want me to clean your room while you do homework?” he offered, the clean-freak in him cringing at the sight of such a messy room.

Gabriel looked around, feigning offense at Cas’ implication. “Are you saying that I’m a messy person?” His voice held a humorous tone, while his gestures were exaggeratedly angry.

Cas tossed his bag to his brother, smirking. “Yeah,” he deadpanned. He turned around and crouched, setting to the big task of cleaning. “This time at least make it look like you tried.” He lifted a pizza box, folding it flat so it would fit in the garbage better.

“What are you talking about, I always try to make it convincing!”

Cas sighed, rising to his feet, three folded up pizza boxes under his arm. “Garbage bags?” he looked at Gabriel who reached under his bed for a box of large black trash bags, holding them out to Castiel. “Thanks,” he murmured, shaking one out before stuffing boxes and wrappers into it. “And last time you just wrote the answers. I almost got caught because you didn’t copy any of the work too, so make sure you do this time.” He looked around the room for a clothes basket before giving his brother a frustrated yet amused look when he found nothing but piles of clothes and other assorted objects. “Do you even have anything to put your dirty clothes in?”

“Of course!” Gabriel looked up from the mathwork he was copying. “Bingo, go show him where we keep the hamper.” Cas watched in astonishment as the little terrier trotted over to a rather large pile of clothes in the far corner of the room, digging down with his front paws a little way until he uncovered an overturned basket. “There! Satisfied?” he smirked, turning back to the papers in front of him.

Cas sighed, impressed, not even trying to figure out the extraordinary link between his big brother and the little terrier. He tipped the basket so it was sitting right-side-up, and started piling clothes into it. It didn’t matter if they were lights, darks, or colours, he’d sort them out in the laundry room, he was just grabbing every piece of clothing he could find and throwing it in the basket. When he was finished, the basket nearly overflowing, he stood up and hoisted the basket onto his hip. “I’ll be right back, I’m just going to go get your laundry started.”

Gabriel looked up at him, furrowing his brow. “You know, half of those are probably clean already.”

Cas rolled his eyes, “Gabriel, clean clothes on a dirty floor make them dirty clothes.” His brother looked like he was about to argue, so Castiel cut him off, “I’m washing them all, don’t argue,” and barely had time to see him throw his arms up in resignation before he swiftly turned and left the room. He hurried down the hall, down the steps, and through the house to the laundry room where he set the heavy basket down next to the washing machine. He opened it up and started tossing in the lights, digging through at least three times to make sure he didn’t miss any. Then he took the laundry detergent from the shelf above the washer and poured a capful into the washing machine. He hesitated for a split second, then gave in and added another half a cap, lord knew how long it had been since these clothes had been washed. 

He peeked out of the room after he had started the load, and seeing no one around, hurried back up the stairs to Gabriel’s room. He found brother and terrier seated on the bed, T.V. on and presenting a loud violent video game. Gabriel glanced up at Cas and smiled. “Homework’s done! Take a break and join me, bro!” Cas looked at him blankly. “It’s Super Smash Bros, Cas. I know you want to play!”

Castiel didn’t even try to pretend he didn’t want to at that point. Super Smash was his favorite video game by far. He flung himself onto the bed next to his brother, picking up the spare controller and waiting anxiously for Gabriel to finish the round with the computer players. When the menu screen finally came up, Cas chose Zelda without hesitation. She was his best character, and he always kicked ass when he played as her. Cas stared at the screen, waiting for the stage select screen to pop up already. He ignored Gabriel as his brother smirked at his character choice and promptly chose Snake.

“Let me pick,” Cas demanded, not taking his eyes away from the screen. Gabriel set his controller down and held up his hands in surrender. Cas glanced at him and quickly went to the Melee stages, selecting the Temple from Legend of Zelda, not even considering any of the others.

He ended up beating Gabriel in every round but two, one of which he let his older brother win.


End file.
